Seeds that are planted for agricultural and other purposes are often treated prior to planting. The treatments may accomplish various purposes including attacking target bacteria, molds and fungus that can contaminate seeds or that may be present in the soil. Also seed treatment can include insecticides, pesticides and provide deterrence or prevention of insect and other animal pests that would target seeds. Treatments can also provide fertilizer. Direct application of seed treatment allows for a reduction in the amount of treatment composition that would be required by application to soil after planting for many of the beneficial effects. Post-planting application may not penetrate the soil to a level or location where it would be effective, is weather dependent, and may not be as economical as direct seed application. Seed distribution is presently accomplished by delivering seeds to farmers that have been treated with a variety of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides, in a central production facility.
The treatment of seeds before planting however involves the application of chemicals and other agents that are expensive and may even be toxic to the environment or workers. Various devices for treatment of seeds in batch or continuous flow treatment mode are known. U.S. Pat. No. 5,891,246 to Lund, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, describes a seed coating apparatus for applying a coating fluid whereby seeds are dispersed with a seed dispersing member. U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,773 to Mueller, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, describes a process and apparatus for dressing seed in which seed is guided over a dispensing cone through a jet of dressing and onto a rotary table. German patent No. DE 4411058 to Niklas, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, describes a device with a mixing bowl connected to a high speed, multi-turn actuator and a mechanism to feed seed into the mixing bowl. U.S. Patent Publication Nos. 2011/0027479 and 2006/0236925, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses various seed treatment apparatus that can be utilized to apply a treatment product or composition to a volume of seeds.
Undesirable chemical waste can be generated by applying excess treatment products to batches of seeds without precise controls. It is also possible that human handling, e.g. pouring various chemicals or formulations into a slurry or mix tank, can result in spillage or unused chemical waste due to inaccurate measuring that may cause environmental contamination. Because treatment products can be very expensive, e.g., hundreds of dollars per gallon, this can result in a large economic loss in addition to any risk of undesirable human exposure. Such chemical waste can also result in an environmental hazard. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved way to contain, control and automate the amount of treatment products applied to the seeds to minimize waste, ensure treatment uniformity, minimize cost and prevent spillage, particularly at the retail level where seed is treated and sold to individual farmer customers.
Certain computerized large-scale seed treaters can treat large batches of seeds in centralized distribution centers. However such equipment is expensive and not generally suitable for use at the retail level. Moreover, the delay caused by shipping treated seed between a central facility and the ultimate planting of that seed can reduce the optimal effects of a treatment applied to the seed. For certain treatments, including formulations having several treatments applied simultaneously to the seeds, the seeds need to be planted very soon, within hours after application, for optimal effectiveness. This is problematic with existing seed treaters and treating controls as such are expensive and typically are not easily used for repeated and rapid processing seed batches for multiple individual users at retail locations.
At such retail locations, if they do have seed treating capabilities, the chemical slurries to coat the seeds are mixed in open mixing bowls or vats, often having personnel actually measure particular liquid ingredients to be added to an open mixing bowl. Such liquid chemicals/formulations may be manually handled and manually poured into the vats. Then the liquid in the vat is ideally agitated and then pumped into seed treatment equipment. Such personnel are not necessarily well trained and the risk of personnel exposure to the chemicals as well as the risk spillages and improper disposal of the treatment chemicals is high. Precisely controlling quantities and application levels and even applying correct formulations is problematic. Moreover, there is simply no means for recording and verifying precisely what and how much has been applied to the seed. There is generally no automatic inventory and ordering systems resulting in possible shortages of certain chemicals and then use of less than ideal replacements. There is generally no automatic moisture control and dynamic rate application system available to seed treaters, resulting in possible inconsistent treatment of certain chemicals and less than ideal moisture content of treated seeds.
A need exists to provide application controls, personnel protection, and environmental protections, and inventory systems that are particularly suitable for the retail seed locations.